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MUMBAI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni was back at his 'spiritual home' Chennai Super Kings while Royal Challengers Bangalore retained India captain Virat Kohli during the much-publicised yet predictable Indian Premier League retentions here this evening.

READ ALSO: Gautam Gambhir, Chris Gayle amid surprising non-retentions (for now) Mumbai Indians had the league's most successful captain Rohit Sharma back in their stable as most of the retentions happened on expected lines.

READ ALSO: Ricky Ponting appointed Delhi Daredevils head coach Current Australia skipper Steve Smith was Rajasthan Royals' only pick while his deputy David Warner remains with Sunrisers Hyderabad along with pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

"It was a great opportunity to retain some players. We want to pick impact players who can take team forward. Warner and Bhuvaneshwar are impact players and impact is the right word for SRH," team mentor VVS Laxman said after the retention process got over.

One of the notable names not to be retained is long-time Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir, who is now back in the auction pool with West Indians Sunil Narine and Andre Russell being the Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise's two picks.

Kings XI Punjab had left-arm spinner Axar Patel in their ranks while South African Chris Morris, young guns Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer are back with Delhi Daredevils.

DD CEO Hemant Dua said: "Ricky Ponting has been appointed as head coach and we are going with the idea of having continuity. We have retained two youngsters and the whole team will be built around them. Chris Morris is a top all-rounder."

The franchises that has gone for full three retentions are CSK, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and RCB.

Read this story in Marathi

For Mumbai Indians, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah are second and third retentions.

"Rohit and MI are synonymous while Hardik and Bumrah are special for us. We are happy that we were able to retain some players. Hardik and Bumrah are pillars of our franchise," MI supremo Akash Ambani said.

CSK have retained their powerhouse performers Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina as their second and third choice respectively.

AB de Villiers is RCB's second retention while they have kept uncapped Sarfaraz Khan for Rs 3 crore while putting Chris Gayle back in the auction pool.

RCB team director Amrit Thomas said: "Virat and AB retain themselves. In Sarfaraz, we wanted to invest in youth as he is a phenomenal player."

The purse that one spends for retention of three capped players is Rs 15 crore for Player 1, Rs 11 crore for Player 2 and Rs 7 crore for Player 3 while for two retentions -- it's Rs 12.5 crore for Player 1 and Rs 8.5 crore for player 2.

However for Virat Kohli, the retention was Rs 17 crore, which incidentally is his league fee. A single player retention had a deduction of Rs 12.5 crore.

Warner I get SRH retaining at that cost. Warner is able to be the chief run scorer and slugger both. A very valuable player for any side, even if taking up a quota spot.

But Smith?

He gets runs, but he loses. How many times has he 50'd up going fairly slow and steady in a losing chase? He may have averaged near 40 in the last ipl, but he did it striking at just over 120sr. And he takes up a quota spot.

Its t20, taking it deep is one approach, but I place a higher value on the players like ABDV and Warner who give the next batsmen more time to get the required runs.

Don't have one to retain? Go to the open market with a full salary cap.

"Your inclination to assume and contradict is typical of Narcissism which is nothing about being pretty like the Narcissus fable."

I think there must have been some sort of negotiation with Gayle.If he'd been retained, he would've been player 3 for RCB, after Kohli and ABDV.That would make him a 7cr (about 1.1million USD) player.By making him an auction player, he could earn much more.So it is possibly in his own interest (maybe even on his request), that he be in the auction.A lot of stuff happens behind the scenes.

Gayle stats are 1 big hit after 10 flop performances. I say it’s a opening spot liability if you can’t make your team reach playoffs. Gayle can be afforded only if a team got wicket keeper batsman star along with many all arounders finishers around. Chennai super kings suit him best.

Agree on Steve smith is unfit for IPL style of T20. Big names mean zilch in the brutal T20 world. All test players are a liability in T20 indeed.

Yeah in t20, if a batsman (or bowler) aint uber reliable like Warner or ABDV or even Kohli and Sharma, then wicket bats and good allrounders are worth the extra dollars in a salary cap environment.

T20 in a salary cap environment is about value. Value is determined by scarcity in supply and abundance in demand.

For me Smith and Gayle now - aren't worth the premium dollars or rupees that the non quota Sharma, Kohli, Pandya bros, Dhoni or quota players like de Kock, Warner and even Butler are worth (although with Dhoni, Uthappa, Rahul, Karthik, Patel et al there's a lot of okay keepers around with good batting credentials making Butler and de Kock less valuable). Let alone C Moz, Dre Russ or Narine.

Call me bias - but Munro and Guptil look better bets for the next 5 years than Gayle.

Last edited by Paddles on Mon Jan 08, 2018 4:02 am, edited 3 times in total.

"Your inclination to assume and contradict is typical of Narcissism which is nothing about being pretty like the Narcissus fable."